▪ The persona you use when you’re

online. Some people maintain one or

The Digital more online identifies that are distinct
Self from their “real world” selves; others
have a single online self that’s more or
Lesson 6 less the same as the one they inhabit in
the real world.
 ▪ The Development of the Digital Self

The idea of the digital self developed from the original

phenomenon of the ‘extend self’, pioneered by Russel Belk
in 1988. He believed our possessions are a major
The Digital Self: contributor to and reflection of our identities.
Why do we
express ourselves
on Social Media ▪ Nowadays however, it isn’t merely tangible belongings
that researchers consider as part of our extended self.
like we do?? Our digital possessions such as photos, vedios, statuses,
texts, and emails are now seen to be significantly
important to shaping our digital self.
 ▪ The idea of the Digital Self is an interesting and
relatively new topic discussed in consumer
Why do we have a behavior research. Researchers, such as Stone
Digital Self? (1996) and Hemetsburger (2005) claim that the
digital web allows us to try out different
personas that differ from our real life identities.
 But why would we want to even do this? We were especially
interested in looking at why we express ourselves online the way we
do and we wanted to share the most common reasons:
• We want to meet the expectation of others: research shows over 50% of women would
edit their social media photos to look better and meet the expectations that the media and
magazines have set.
• We want to boost our self-esteem: people upload photos and statuses online that they feel
will receive ‘likes’ and positive feedback in which ultimately helps their egos.
• To feel a sense of belonging: Some of us want to fit in with the crowd and upload things
that are ‘down with the trend’- for instance, who notices the amount of people posting
pictures of their food increasing? It didn’t come from nowhere.
• Bigger sense of freedom: Unlike real life, digital platforms allow us to express ourselves
in any way we want to without anyone there to physically judge us.
• Striving to be our ideal selves: Digital Apps, such as Facetune, that allow us to improve
our appearances on photos (through teeth whitening, skin smoothing and body shape
editing) helps consumers to express as their ‘ideal’ self online and inevitably feel better
about themselves.
 ▪ You have more control over your digital
identity.

The Concept of ▪ You can build a consistent identity, and reduce

the Digital Self the impact of problems that might put hirers or
recruiters off contacting you.
Advantages
▪ You have the chance to develop your own
reputation as an expert or thought leader in
your industry.
 ▪ Some elements of your digital self include:
Elements of the
1. Your online behavior
Digital Self
What goes into building your 2. Your online voice
digital self? 3. Your online presentation
 ▪ Given that your online behavior makes a
huge impact on how you present your
Developing your digital self, its important to always use
identity with social media with care and consistency-
online content always aware of how your personal
and social media
brand can be affected by what you say
and do.
 ▪ Social media is a term for numerous
technologies that allow instantaneous
communication, status updates, and social
The Digital networking among individuals.
Self:How Social ▪ Social media platforms today include text
Media Serves as a messaging via cellular phones and social
Setting that Shapes networking sites such as Facebook.
Youth’s Emotional
Experience ▪ Social media, particularly Facebook , may have
both a positive and negative impact on mood
symptoms and other mental disorders.
 ▪ Given that your online behavior makes a
huge impact on how you present your
Developing your digital self, its important to always use
identity with social media with care and consistency-
online content always aware of how your personal
and social media
brand can be affected by what you say
and do.
 ▪ The enhancement of social contact
▪ Independence
▪ Communication
▪ Using the internet for communication purposes has numerous
benefits for the emotional well-being of youth.
The Positive
and Negative ▪ The negative effects of social media use because researchers

Impact of Social are asking the wrong questions and missing out on more
ephemeral, hard-to-quantify findings.
Media on Youth ▪ Adolescents report negative relational experiences via social
media. For example, adolescents experience online meanness
and bullying (“cyber-bullying”)
▪ Misunderstanding

▪ Unintentional disclosure while using social networking

websites (Christofides et al. 2012).
 The Digital Self:
Through the Looking Glass of Telecopresent Others
People we interact with influence the way we think of ourselves. According to
symbolic interactionism, others serve as a looking glass in which we see ourselves
(Cooley [1902] 1964). Our view of who we are emerges from our interactions with
others.
We present ourselves to others as we interact with them, and we come to know
ourselves as others react to us. Just as we find out how we look from the reflections we
see in the mirror, we learn who we are by interpreting how others respond to us.
Others communicate their attitudes toward us not merely in the expressions they give,
but more important, in the expressions they “give off” (Goffman 1959).
Through both verbal and nonverbal behaviors, others convey to us, either purposefully
or unwittingly, their appraisals of our self-presentations, which in turn shapes how we
view ourselves.
 ▪ Telecopresence is an electronically mediated social context for
human interaction. Unlike corporeal copresence where
individuals are “in one another’s immediate physical presence”
(Goffman 1959).
▪ Telecopresence is a situation in which individuals are
electronically linked while physically swparate in different

Telecopresent locations.

Others ▪ Through electronic devices (e.g., networked laptop computers

and palm pilots), spatially dispersed individuals become
“copresent everywhere at once” (McLuhan 1964). In the sense
that they are not in one anothers immediate physical presence,
the individuals are apart, hence “tele”; but in the sense that they
can reach one another through electronic mediation for real-
time communication, the individuals are together , hence
“copresent”.
Indeed, telecopresense became possible a long time ago with the invention of the telegraph, and the
invention of the telephone further enhanced such capability.

However, prior to the development of the Internet, telecopresence in the realm of socializing was primarily
confined to the situation of one-to-one communication between people who had already known each other
(Pool 1977).

A notable axception was the networked communication via CB radio. Which allowed many-to-many
contact and provided anonymity through the use of “handles” or, in today’s terminology, “screen names”
(Cowman 1977). The many-to-many contact capability in combination with the provision of anonymity
gave rise to, for the first time, a viable online social domain that permitted complete strangers to interact
with one another.

In telecopresence, on the other hand, individuals interact with one another face to device from place to
place, which enables them to be “simultaneously linked to and buffered from one another” (Sproul and
Koestler 1991:30).
 1. People we do not know at all
Three Basic kinds of
“others” we interact in 2. People we know both online and offline, and
telecpresence 3. People we know only online.
These three groups of people come to affect our
self-conception differently.
 ▪ According to the “looking glass” theory,
the self is not something we are born
Adolescent Online with or something that is innate in us;
instead, it is something we acquire
through interaction with others.
 ▪ First, teenagers are at a stage of life when they
Why do teenagers begin to explore their place in the world.
go online to meet
strangeers? ▪ Second, teenagers perceive the online world as
There are the possible explanation. a safer place to interact with others.
▪ Third, teenagers go online to look for a “soul
mate” or someone they can really relate to.
Thank you!!